The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particular to a very high-density modular connector having a pair of differential pair with equal length, thereby effectively eliminating skew during signal transmission.
High-density electrical connector for use with printed circuit boards has been increasing required by the market in light of the increasing use of the servers, and the storage box.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,993,259 discloses an electrical connector of such application. The connector disclosed in the ""259 patent includes a plurality of modularized wafers bounded together. As shown in FIG. 4 of the ""259 patent, the terminals are stamped from a metal sheet, then embedded within an insulative material to form the wafer. However, it can be readily seen from FIG. 4 that the length of each terminal is different from its adjacent terminal because of the right-angle arrangement. In addition, it would be unlikely to make two adjacent terminals with equal length. As long as the terminal length is different from one another, skew between terminals is therefore inevitable.
In addition, it will be difficult to have two adjacent terminals to be configured as a differential pair. By the way, because of the shape of the terminals, it is also unlikely to reach equal impedance between two adjacent terminals.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,083,047 discloses an approach to make a high-density connector by introducing the use of printed circuit board. According to teaching of the ""047 patent, conductive traces are formed on surfaces of the printed circuit board in a mirror-image arrangement, typically shown in FIG. 12. Again, the conductive traces formed on the surface of the printed circuit board are unlikely to have the same length. Skew is still inevitable.
In addition, in the above-described patent, distance between two adjacent terminals is too close to intercept a ground contact or conductive trace.
In the ""259 patent, even a ground bus is provided, however, the ground bus only electrically separate two adjacent wafers, while it can not separate two adjacent terminals.
In the ""047 patent, since the conductive traces are exposed on the printed circuit board, arranging a ground bus between two printed circuit boards. According to the teaching of the ""047, insulative spacer is arranged to two adjacent printed circuit boards, this will not doubt increase the thickness of the overall dimension of the connector, especially when ground buses are arranged therein.
In addition, when the conductive traces are formed on the printed circuit boards, connecting legs/sockets have to be attached to corresponding conductive trace. This will not doubt complicate the make of the connector.
In the ""047 patent, even the conductive-traces formed on both sides of the printed circuited board, since the connecting portion and tail portions are soldered thereto, the it will be unlikely to reach equal impedance between two terminals.
It is an objective of this invention to provide an electrical connector of high density in which terminal pair within an individual wafer has equal length.
It is still the objective of this invention to provide an electrical connector in which two adjacent wafers are separated by a grounding bus having ground ribs extending two adjacent terminals thereby providing excellent shielding for signal transmission.
In order to achieve the objective set forth, an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention comprises a wafer integrally formed with a pair of terminal pairs and each pair configured by first and second terminals. The first terminal includes a first base portion having a first tail portion, and a first mating portion, the first tail and mating portions extending beyond the wafer. The second terminal includes a second base portion having a second tail portion, and a second mating portion, the second tail and mating portions extending beyond the wafer; wherein the first and second base portions of the first and second terminal are spaced apart from each other in a side-by-side arrangement.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention comprises at least a pair of wafers integrally formed with a plurality of terminals therein, the each wafer defining at least two openings adjacent to a terminal; and a first grounding bus is located between the wafers and forming at least a pair of grounding ribs extending into the openings of the wafer.